Steam & Excursion > NOACA Pushing to Extend CVSR Into Cleveland

 A Northeast Ohio transportation planning agency is trying to revive a long-held dream of having the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad serve downtown Cleveland.
The Plain Dealer recently reported that the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency is working with other agencies to what needs to be done to enable CVSR trains to travel the 11 miles from the tourist railroad’s northern terminus in Independence into Cleveland.

The idea has been studied before and has been around for more than 20 years. A major stumbling block to extending the CVSR into Cleveland is that CSX owns the former Baltimore & Ohio tracks that excursion trains would need to use.
Once part of the B&O’s Valley Line, the track north of Independence remains an active freight line. There are no freight operations over the track used by the CVSR between Rockside Road station in Independence and downtown Akron. That track is owned by the National Park Service.

NOACA coordinates transportation planning in Cuyahoga, Lake, Lorain, Geauga, and Medina counties.
Executive Director Grace Gallucci said the agency plans to hire a consultant to conduct a feasibility study of extending the CVSR northward, possibly to Tower City Center on the southwest corner of Public Square.

“We all have enthusiasm for the project,” Gallucci said. “We’re going to get this done. To be able to put together a railroad taking people from the inner city to the national park would be fantastic.”
She said the study is expected to take 12 to 18 months to complete. Any infrastructure improvements the study recommends could be funded by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

As for the cost of the feasibility study, Galluci said that will be shared by the partnering agencies. She did not say how much the study will cost.
Those agencies are still working out their respective contributions to the study.
Lisa Petit, the superintendent of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, told The Plain Dealer creating a car-free connection between the park and Cleveland is a major motivating factor behind the renewed effort to extend the CVSR into downtown Cleveland.

She noted that Northeast Ohio has been designed primarily for access by car rather than transit.
This has resulted, Petit said, in lack of transportation between the park and “certain neighborhoods and communities around us.”
U.S. Census data shows that 22.4 percent of Cleveland households don’t have a car. The state median is 6.2 percent.

Joseph Mazur, CVSR president, said previous efforts to extend the railroad’s trains into Cleveland have failed, most recently in 2008.
NOACA has listed extending the CVSR into downtown Cleveland as among a dozen “major projects’' eligible for federal funding.
The agency defines a major project as one costing $12 million or more to complete. From the akronrrblog

CVSR= Great buncha guys, they deserve to get into Cleveland Union Terminal "Tower City"...

State of Ohio needs to see the big picture, and design a grand entrance for it's 3-C Corridors: CUT makes perfect sense. It's already used by RTA, so Amtrak needs to be given another shot into CUT with it's Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited Trains, add to that it's 3C trains, CVSR and RTA, now that's cool... CVSR even had a Canton service. The depot is still there. This was sponsored in part by Akron METRO.

How about giving another shot to the old Erie-Lackawanna Commute from Cleveland to Youngstown that lasted till the 70s under Conrail? They could probably run it past Solon on the old Erie which has low traffic... The Wheeling also doens't have much traffic on it's Cleveland Subdivision...

The Waterfront Amshack is a JOKE for Cleveland, and it's early morning departures SUCK... Back in the 70's, Amtrak served Ohio in many towns under the Shenandoah, the National Limited, Broadway Limited via Canton and Capitol Limited via Akron, some routes have even been abandoned and torn up,

DeWine has a lot of homework...
 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/08/23 16:50 by Geep.

A glimmer of hope today toward a coordinated multimodal station in Cleveland:

https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/02/dewine-takes-first-step-toward-ohio-amtrak-expansion-by-seeking-federal-money.html

Snip: Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday his administration has decided to apply for federal money to study the feasibility of expanding Amtrak service in Ohio for the first time in decades.

Ohio has ALWAYS been not just pro-highway, but literally highway-only, in all of their long-term planning and spending for DECADES.  While ORDC supports industrial and shortline rail initiatives, it's nothing like what neighboring states do like PennDOT's RFAP and RTAP programs.  CUT would indeed be the grandest way to enter and leave Cleveland.  Displace all that parking and get 3 or 4 tracks reinstalled under the building using the bridge across the valley.  THere's plenty of real estate to put 1 or 2 tracks back on the approaches from the SE.  If CLE to PIT is part of the plan, then yes, the old EL makes some sense.  Imagine McDonald's in Mantua being in the way of that reconstruction, lol?  The double main just barely missed the building itself today.  I can see the headlines now..."Golden Arches forced to move to make way for new commuter railroad."  One can always dream.

TrackGuy

One suggestion:
Assign unused Cleveland municipal busses to transport residents back and forth the 20 miles between downtown Cleveland and the Cuyahoga National Park.
There; problem solved with no consulting fees paid by taxpayers, no environmental impact study, no lengthy battles with CSX Transportation over trackage rights, and operating at full capacity in one month!

 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/23 20:30 by redberan4449.